Danielle Moodie-Mills Breaks Down New Report on Women & Wage Gap

Social entrepreneur and policy analyst Danielle Moodie-Mills sat down with MSNBC’s Richard Lui to break down the findings of The Shriver Report on American women and their families.

Touching on the challenges facing millions of American women who are living on the brink of poverty, Moodie-Mills identified the wage gap between women of color and their white male counterparts, and also explored new ways forward for LGBT women of color.

“A black woman — a black lesbian woman — who is working the same job as a white man, is going to be paid less than half of what he’s being paid to do the same job. That should just not be the case in our country. We should have equal pay for equal work, regardless of your sexual orientation, your gender identity, and your gender.”

In America today, the poverty rate is double the national average for women. Black women and LGBT women of color are even more so affected, in many instances being forced to endure economic insecurity and work-life conflicts as a result of their sexual orientation and gender identification.

“It’s really important that we create environments where women, all women, are able to achieve the kind of life that they want. Achieve the American Dream and have economic security,” said Moodie-Mills.

What’s known as the “Trifecta of Discrimination,” being a black queer woman in America often times means being left out of the national conversation. Moodie-Mills’ work as a contributor on The Shriver Report is aimed at igniting a national conversation on why that is and what we can do as a nation to shift this way of thinking as it relates to equal pay at work and pushing back against poverty.

Launched by Maria Shriver, The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation Pushes Back from the Brink, in partnership with the Center for American Progress, is the third in a series of groundbreaking examinations. For more information, please visit www.ShriverReport.org.

Danielle Moddie-Mills is an Advisor with the Fighting Injustice to Reach Equality (FIRE) initiative that she launched with her wife, Aisha, at the Center for American Progress. She and her wife also produce and host “Politini,” a politics and pop culture show on blis.fm, and co-author a politics and pop culture column in ELIXHER Magazine.